NJ's Top Court Proposes Change to Spousal Immunity

New .Jersey's Justices call for crime-fraud exception to spousal

New Jersey's Supreme Court is proposing an exception to the law that keeps conversations between a husband and wife private.

The court on Tuesday ruled in the case of an Ocean County couple whose calls and text messages were intercepted by wiretaps used by authorities investigating a drug trafficking network.

An appeals court overturned a lower court judge who found the conversations and texts were not confidential because they were overhead by law enforcement. The judge also discussed that the conversations aided in a crime.

The state's highest court sided with the appeals court that marital communication does not lose its privacy just because it's heard by wiretap. But the justices proposed that the Legislature create a crime-fraud exception when spouses are jointly involved in criminal activity.